transitive verb

• 1Chemistry
  Eliminate a carboxylic acid group from (an organic compound)

  ‘heating at 100°C in dryness decarboxylates the proteins to yield glutamic acid’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Coproporphyrinogen III is transported to the interior of the mitochondrion, where 2 propionate residues are decarboxylated, yielding vinyl substituents on the 2 pyrrole rings.’
  • ‘Thus, malate produced following PEP carboxylation is readily decarboxylated and the CO 2 released.’
  • ‘In this compartment, called the matrix, the pyruvic acid is decarboxylated to a two-carbon acetyl group, releasing a CO 2 molecule, and is enzymatically joined to Coenzyme A, a large carrier molecule.’
  • ‘Malate formed by PEPC can either be used in the citric acid cycle or it can be decarboxylated to provide pyruvate and subsequently acetyl-CoA.’
  • ‘Pyruvate is first decarboxylated to produce acetaldehyde and carbon dioxide, catalyzed by pyruvate decarboxylase.’

  1. 1.1no object Undergo the process of decarboxylation.
     ‘unstable carbamic acid decarboxylates to yield the amine’
     More example sentences

     • ‘After electron transfer the product decarboxylates resulting in a ketylbiradical III that has a life time of about 4 s, long enough to reduce oxygen to superoxide.’